Dragonflies and damselflies are incredible insects. They are arguably the world’s most skilled fliers, arguably the world’s most successful predators, and arguably the best insects (so says David). Not only that, they and their ancient cousins have been abundant and successful aerial predators for over 300 million years. This episode, we discuss what sets these bugs apart from all the rest, we explore what’s known of their evolution from their surprisingly good fossil record, and of course we highlight their most famous extinct cousins: the giant griffenflies.
In the news: croc habitats, tyrannosaur food, elephant trunks, and early mosquitos.
Time markers:
Intro & Announcements: 00:00:00
News: 00:04:30
Main discussion, Part 1: 00:34:15
Main discussion, Part 2: 01:13:15
Patron question: 01:53:45
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http://commondescentpodcast.com/
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The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome.
More music like this at http://ocremix.org.
Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Episode 70 - Convergent Evolution
Episode 69 - Ankylosaurs
Episode 68 - Evolution of Eyes
Voices of La Brea - Bonus Episode
Episode 67 - The La Brea Tar Pits
Episode 66 - Elephants
Episode 65 - The Late Devonian Extinction(s)
Episode 64 - Paleoart
Silver Screen Science – Godzilla (2014) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Silver Screen Science – King Kong (2005) and Kong: Skull Island (2017)
Episode 63 - Sexual Selection
Silver Screen Science – Kaiju Concepts
Silver Screen Science - Gojira (1954)
Episode 62 – Amber
Silver Screen Science - King Kong (1933)
Episode 61 - Behavior in the Fossil Record
Episode 60 - Turtles
Episode 59 - Bats
Episode 58 - The Bone Wars
Episode 57 - Evolution of Flowering Plants (Angiosperms)
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